Thursday, March 18 – Day 30

Seeking His Righteousness in Our Communities
Seeking God….for freedom from terror

Fear is probably the most powerful weapon that the enemy uses against the Body of Christ. If there is any one thing that draws us to Jesus, and there are many, it would have to be the reality of a man who never walked in fear. The Body of Christ needs a fresh daily reminder, that as followers of Jesus, we are not followers of fear.

Jesus’ encouragement to His followers throughout the Gospels is to ‘fear not’, and ‘be not afraid, He then reminds us that, ‘He is with us’, the One who never walks in fear.

Fear disguises itself in so many ways, its goal is to paralyze, and its plan is to keep us from accomplishing The Father’s will. When that happens we become a people who are more consumed with defending the Gospel than we are sharing the Gospel. That is an indication that we are not operating out of righteousness, but rather self-righteousness.

Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 54:14 was speaking of being established in our position of righteousness, and not in the condition of what goes on around us. Even though oppression, fear, and terror may be close to us naturally, it can be far removed from our heart, our mind, and even our emotions.

John said that, ‘perfect love casts out fear’. Every time that we pull back from loving the people that we don’t want to love, it affects how we love the people that we do want to love. Fear then remains a factor in both relationships.

Jesus didn’t come to change us, He came to love us, and as a result of that love we desire to change. Those changes then continue the process of establishing us in the position righteousness that we already have in Christ. Our position is greater than our condition.

Daniel Winn
Pastor, Cedar Rapids Family Church

Tuesday, March 16 – Day 28

Seeking His Righteousness In Our Communities
Seek God....to inspire a yearning for righteousness

….to inspire a yearning for righteousness. (inspire: 1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence.) (yearning = a persistent, often wistful or melancholy desire; a longing) (righteousness = 1. morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.2. In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment. 3. Morally justifiable: righteous anger.)

This is a good day to look at the words being used by the writer of these prayers! I would ask you to pray with passion for a divine influence in your prayers. Obviously those who defined the word in the dictionary put in the very first definition the words “divine influence” so let’s go for it! Can you ask the Holy Spirit to put ‘salt’ in the soul of those that you are praying for that they would yearn for right standing before their God! AND we can pray (see the NT prayer for today) from a place of celebrating the sinlessness of Christ!

The fourth sentence in the NT prayer for today is electrifying for me!! “Your words, Your deeds, Your prayers – everything about Your life was lived in outrageous fullness.” Outrageous fullness. [In today’s prayer, consider the word ‘outrageous’ to be defined as: well beyond the understanding! Not only full, but beyond our ability to comprehend what full is. More than full. Running over! An inability to contain it all.] This is what we have to celebrate!

When we go to prayer – we can move in prayers of outrageous celebration!!! Think about it – as I write these sentences I am not sure I comprehend all that the Holy Spirit is telling ME! Let’s try this together – I believe we will have some outrageous answers!

Brother Charles
Serve The City

Monday March 15 - Day 27

Seeking His Righteousness In Our Communities
Seek God…to intervene to bring forth justice.

“Oh Lord, reshape our minds to value Your goodness. Penetrate our hearts with Your compassion.”

So we express our faith by presenting the same appeals for justice before Your court, day after day.” Page 42.

Please look at the circle at the top of the page 42. Today is “day 2” of the theme “Seeking His Righteousness In Our Communities.” Please notice that the city in the circle is in darkness and the light is off to the side and partial. Each day the light moves to the center toward the top of the buildings and becomes brighter.

The lesson we can graphically see from this illustration is that one prayer on a topic most often is not enough. God is a God of persistence, and we are called to be like Him. Daniel prayed ‘through’ for 21 days and finally an angel from heaven arrived with his message. The angel messenger needed help from Michael, one of the chief princes. Daniel was participating in warfare in the heavens. (…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth…) We are called to the same perseverance, day after day.

Another illustration of perseverance is found in II Kings 13:14:19. Elisha told King Joash to strike the ground with the arrows in his hand. The King struck the ground 3 times “and the man of God was angry with him.” “You should have struck the ground 5 or 6 times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it.” (total victory)

Don’t hold back! Go for total victory in your prayer life! As the circle at the top of each illustrates, let us ‘strike the ground’ with the arrows of prayer that we hold in our heart and speak with our mouth….day after day until the picture the Lord has given us is clear, bright and complete.

Charles Daugherty
Serve The City

Sunday March 14 - Day 26

Seeking His Righteousness In Our Communities
Seek God…to bring blessing through righteousness.

Today’s OT prayer concerning Sodom is both inspiring and convicting. God will show grace and mercy to SO many if only a FEW would walk in righteousness! Of the hundreds and hundreds in Sodom, God would spare the city if only 10 righteous could be found. So sad! Lot had not been a believable witness of the Living God…even to his two future son-in-laws who found him to be “jesting” when he warned them to flee the city…and they perished in the city.

Over the last 30 years I have traveled the eastern half of Iowa calling on business after business. I was always amazed at the grace God had given so many businesses to actually still be “‘in business.” Their ethics were questionable, their business practices were lacking, morale down…..and yet they were still operating. Why? I would always find Believers that were praying for that company. Some were employees, some were family members of the employees while still others were connected to that company in various manners.

The Lord is calling us to a more active roll these days; prayer, then care while being ready to share when appropriate. We recently heard a report of two companies located in Houston Texas. In company A the employees that were many Believers did not connect with each other, may have prayed, but were mostly silent in their day to day lives. The company closed at a great loss to the city, to so many families and to investors across the nation.

In company B, two employees that were Believers (from different congregations) began to meet and pray for their company that was in trouble. The asked this question: “Why are we here?” Slowly their numbers grew. They asked God for His wisdom to bring proposals to management at the right time and with the right attitude. Their proposals were adopted and the company made a complete turn around. In the right time, they presented a proposal that would allow employees to volunteer on a project in the community during company business hours with no interruption to their pay. The proposal was agreed to. This company continues to prosper. The company is serving their city.

Locally, in Linn County, one man praying is the reason (my perspective) that the company he works for is still holding on. One man!

Can we ask the question? What are we here for? Why not look for others in our work place that are Believers and begin to pray for our companies, supervisors, owners and investors? Why not?

As we do so, we become an answer to one of the sentences in our OT prayer for today. “As You transform our lives in Christ’s righteousness, even though we are few, bring about some of the great, long-promised blessing upon the entire city.”

Indeed! Why not?

Charles Daugherty
Serve The City

Thursday, March 4 – Day 16

Seeking His Light to Awaken the Lost
Seek God....to rescue people from spiritual darkness

It occurred to me that those in greatest need of release from their bondage are those who are blinded to that bondage. They think they are okay and that others are trapped in barren life styles. The Word clearly shows that unless we are slaves to righteousness we are slaves, prisoners, to sin. My prayer is that those in darkness would have the light of truth penetrate their lives through us. I pray that our lives would mirror the freedom of Christ, freedom from guilt, bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred, jealousy, covetousness, and unbelief. I pray that our lives would visibly show kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, peace, patience, joy and love – independent of the environment we find ourselves in so that they may see hope and lives changed to the glory of God. I pray that the hardness of their hearts might be broken and made ready for the seed of the Word of God to penetrate deep and bring forth life.

J. O.
Valley View

Saturday, February 20 – Day 4

Lord Jesus, today our city and nation is praying for righteousness and peace. Please help us and all those around us to know that true, lasting, real peace only comes through You, Jesus. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins and for making me right with You so that I can know what peace feels like. Thank you for leading and guiding me. Please bring my friends, family members and all those around me into a lasting relationship with You and help us all to be passionate followers of Jesus.


In Jesus' Name,
Amen

SB